Paul Clemetson, head of the Island Traffic Authority. - File
Seven months in the job as head of the Island Traffic Authority (ITA), Paul Clemetson has grown eightfold the number of vehicle fitness certifications issued monthly, from 500 to 4,000, but those numbers still capture only a tenth of the autos that populate Jamaica's road network.
In two weeks, Clemetson will roll out a programme called 'Operation Fit Vehicle' to double monthly fitness certifications to 8,000, with two goals in mind: improved safety from ensuring vehicles are roadworthy; and reduced corruption in an agency almost synonymous with the greasing of palms.
The ITA already has the people resources and processes to make the programme work without additional investment, said Clemetson.
"Our goal is to rid the roads of Jamaica of defective vehicles and I believe that this can be achieved within another three months," he said.
No additional capital
"If each certifying officer examines a minimum of 50 vehicles weekly, we will be in the region of 10,000 units per month; so this will not require additional capital."
But even those numbers, which translate to 96,000 to 120,000 certifications per year, fall substantially below Clemetson's estimated 500,000 vehicles that traverse Jamaican roads daily.
And even if the new ITA boss has the success he hopes for with Operation Fit Vehicle, at any one point in time, as many as 400,000 vehicles will still be operating illegally, denying the treasury, assuming blanket coverage, of $1 billion of revenue. Fitness certification costs $2,500 for private vehicles and $3,000 for commercial.
ITA inspectors working with the police will step up inspections of vehicles in spot checks nationwide.
The Jamaica Constabulary Force has already agreed to the road checks, but Clemetson says talks on speeding up investigations and prosecutions of corrupt officers in his and the police's own ranks are ongoing.
The ITA's 55 certifying officers - 39 regular and 16 senior inspectors of motor vehicles - are required to conduct two spot check operations on a weekly basis in their respective parish jurisdictions.
Decisive action
Clemetson is promising 'decisive and stringent punitive action', through criminal prosecutions, against ITA officers and police personnel who pass vehicles that are demonstrably not roadworthy.
"Since I took over, the ITA has removed an average of 500 licence plates off vehicles operating as public passenger vehicles, as a consequence of defects," he tells the Financial Gleaner.
"There is also the allegation that certifying officers will issue certificates for a vehicle that did not have the defects remedied," he noted.
"There is also the allegation that police officers will return these plates; therefore, our collaboration with the JCF will be for the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI) to take instant action against any suspicious act of the return of a registration plate where the defects were not addressed."
Timely plan
Under Operation Fit Vehicle, if an automobile is found to be defective but the driver is in possession of a recently issued certificate of fitness, a report will be submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions, "and the chips are going to fall where they may," Clemetson said.
Head of the police traffic division Superintendent Claude Reynolds, has endorsed the plan, saying it was timely and would be complemented by increased police patrols.
"The presence of the police by itself is a deterrent to would-be offenders, and with the introduction of this initiative we will see our streets being rid of defective vehicles even as we continue to take a stand against corruption," Robinson said.
The ITA is responsible for the inspection and certification of motor vehicles, testing applicants for drivers' licences, issuing of special permits, and is the record keeper of all road accidents.
Clemetson has taken charge under a mandate to clean up the agency, where corruption has become endemic.
He is also in charge of a modernisation programme to be completed in fiscal year 2009/10.
mark.titus@gleanerjm.com